Ralph Pelligra, MD,

is Chief Medical Officer of NASA’s Ames Research Center, one of NASA’s largest

installations in Mountain View, California.* He received his MD from New York Medical College in Manhattan

and completed a residency program in internal medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert

Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY.

His diverse background in internal medicine, emergency medicine, aerospace medicine, and physiological

research has given Dr. Pelligra a unique perspective in dealing with medical problems that cross and combine

traditional medical specialties. He has published on a wide range of medical topics in journals such as the

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

, Neuropediatrics, the

American Journal of Obstetrics

& Gynecology

, the Journal of Applied Physiology, the Journal of Aerospace Medicine, Medical Hypotheses

,

The Scientific World Journal

, and the Encyclopedia Britannica

. In 1996, Dr. Pelligra was inducted into the

Space Technology Hall of Fame for developing a life-saving anti-shock garment that is in current use in low

resource countries throughout the world for the treatment of hemorrhage in childbirth.

Dr. Pelligra is a member of the board of directors of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential

(IAHP) in Philadelphia, a non-profit institution that provides medical care and guidance for brain-injured

children and their parents. He is the Chairman of the IAHP Medical/Institutional Review Board that oversees

innovative programs specifically designed to improve brain function in brain-injured children.

*